The field of crowd barriers has evolved according to the needs of the situation. From simple wooden barricades to chain link fencing, crowd barriers have been developed to regulate and partition people from specified areas. While wooden barricades have been useful for signaling where one should not enter and are easy to setup, their ability to stop someone has largely been ineffective. Likewise, barriers such as fencing are effective at stopping a few people but are difficult to set up and remove, and have proven largely ineffective at events with large crowds were tragically, masses of people easily rock the fences until they crash and people are crushed by the crowd. Crowd control barriers require a sturdy construction while also needing simple setup and breakdown characteristics and versatility in their configurations.
At large scale events such as music concerts or sports events, an effective crowd control barrier must withstand both an onslaught of people wishing to get past the barricade during the event and the rigors of handling and transportation before and after the event. While many metal barriers of sturdy construction have been previously developed, such barriers were relatively heavy demanding considerable labor to set up and move about. Barriers with lightweight metal such as aluminum were then developed, and while lighter, lacked endurance or were cumbersome to manipulate. The present invention is directed to a lightweight crowd control barrier that is easy to handle, can shift from a compact collapsed position to a fully erect position in short time, and can easily connect to other barriers to form a sturdy barricade that may be configured in a non-linear formation.
It has long been recognized that connecting multiple barriers in sequence is a desirable feature that allows the formation of a longer barricade with other barriers of the type. In recognition of this problem, it has been proposed to construct barriers with the ability to link to an adjacent barrier of the same type. A barrier of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,491 to Puccio.
At present, connection between barrier modules vary from bolting to using cotter pins or simple latches as seen in Puccio. To serve their purpose, the connectors must be quick and efficient for rapidly setting up strings of barriers, while being durable to withstand the forces exerted at the joint of two connected barriers.
The problem with the construction of barrier modules at present is that to meet durability requirements most are made of heavy material such as steel making them inefficient for handling and connecting together to form a barrier line. Steel constructed barriers, while sturdy, are often constructed with rectangular tubing and are overall difficult to grasp. Gripping a heavy rectangular surface while trying to connect two barriers together requires considerable effort and often results in the workman losing the frame causing it to fall and take damage.
Another problem with barrier connectors is the sturdiness of the connector itself. While simple latches and pins may be sufficient to link barrier modules together, such a solution fails to provide durability against forces generated by a large crowd. The latches and cotter pins tend to break or bend when resisting the crowd forces. Hence, many of such barriers were more of a deterrent than a crowd stopping device.
It is known to form a horizontal bottom frame and barrier frame pivotable upwardly therefrom and braced from the rear by pivotal struts. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,234 to De Boer. Such devices suffer the shortcoming that the connector of the pivotal struts to the top o the barrier frame are incapable of withstanding high crowd forces and are themselves inexpensive to make. Connectors between the barrier modules often lock load carrying capability and many require time to assemble. Such connectors are unsuitable for concert venues where set up and breakdown time is very limited.
Another problem with barriers of the present is their lack of user friendliness. Security is often located behind the barriers in case someone is able to get past one but that limits the security from being able to access the crowd if needed. To solve this problem, security will often stand elevated above the crowd behind the barriers using boxes or other stand alone platforms. To solve this problem, De Boer proposed using a step connected to the barrier so that security personnel may stand on the barrier elevated to a crowd where they may spot specific activity in the crowd.
The problem with the De Boer solution is that while security personnel may be elevated above the crowd, such a barrier design does not take into account the fact that personnel must stand on the step without upper body support, often for an extended period of time. While De Boer shows a rounded rail top wall on which a workman may arguably rest his or her hand, it is challenging to maintain a grip on such a singular surface for extended periods of time.
The De Boer design also lacks a feature which enables security personnel to exit from behind the barrier and return effectively. While personnel may be able to spot problems in the crowd, getting access to those problems from behind a barrier is another issue, as is returning to the secure side of the barrier. There are times when a spectator is hurt or feints in a crowd and security faces a daunting task of accessing the crowd to reach the person and then retreating back around the end of the barrier to a safe area. While security personnel may scale the barrier from the security side to enter the crowd, such a maneuver risks further injury to the security personnel and to members of the crowd.
Another problem with barriers of today is the inflexibility of configuring them to the shape of the perimeter of the area to be protected. Today's barriers are cumbersome and lack adaptability to the non-linear perimeters of many venues. For instance, when an area requires a barricade to form a semi-circular formation or right angles at any point, the previously proposed barriers fail to provide an effective and efficient means of linking adjacent barriers to achieve this purpose.
In unrelated areas such as baby barriers and water barriers, it has been known to construct lightweight, easily handled and easily set up collapsible barriers. Such barriers are not suitable for the regulation of large crowds of people because they're construction is either too lightweight or ineffective at keeping people out of a restricted area. For example, the baby barrier uses plastic which will not endure against the force of one adult let alone a crowd. As another example, a water barrier uses an impermeable sheet as a barrier surface against water. Such a sheet is easily compromised and people will be able to pass through the barrier at will.
Thus, a need exists in the marketplace for a crowd control barrier modules that is easily handled, easily and durably connected to adjacent barrier modules, and can be configured to non-linear formations while maintaining a durable integrity.